Preview Newsletter
ACC AM 12/5/17
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(ACC Mentioned) Nabe Economists Still Project 2.2% Growth In GDP This Year, But Lower Job Growth Outlook
Dec 4, 2017 | Staffing Industry Analysts
Economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics maintained their growth projections for the US economy in 2017, the association announced today. The median forecast calls real GDP growth of 2.2% this year, unchanged from the September 2017 estimate. However, the economists slightly increased the median forecast for real GDP growth in 2018 to 2.5%, up from 2.4% in the September estimate. -
(ACC Mentioned) Wrap Recycling Action Program expands to Omaha, Nebraska
Dec 4, 2017 | Recycling Today
The Flexible Film Recycling Group (FFRG) of the Washington-based American Chemistry Council (ACC) joined partners in Omaha, Nebraska, during the first weekend in December to launch a new campaign designed to increase recycling of plastic wraps and bags in the city. -
States Warn Of Economic Impacts If EPA Strategic Plan Drops SMM Effort
Dec 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
State waste managers are raising concerns that EPA's omission of sustainable materials management (SMM) from the agency's draft multi-year strategic plan will cause economic harm, making the United States less competitive with other countries that are pursuing a circular economy. -
EPA Launches New PFAS Initiative
Dec 4, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA is launching a new, cross-agency workgroup to address the persistent class of chemicals known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in an effort to help a growing number of states, localities and tribes that are struggling to deal with the chemicals in their jurisdictions. -
EU Extends Glyphosate Licence By 5 Years
Dec 4, 2017 | Chemistry World
By Jamie Durrani
Extending herbicide’s approval until December 2022 has pleased neither industry nor environmental campaigners -
(ACC Mentioned) West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice: China Deal Is ‘Serious’
Dec 4, 2017 | Wheeling Intelligencer
By Casey Junkins
Although relatively short on specifics during a Monday press conference, Gov. Jim Justice showed plenty of enthusiasm for what he termed a “deathly serious” $83.7 billion China Energy investment plan for shale natural gas and petrochemical projects in West Virginia. -
(ACC Mentioned) OPEC Extends Oil Cuts To 2019
Dec 5, 2017 | Breakbulk
Members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have agreed to extend current production limits through 2018, providing reassurance for breakbulk operators and a boost for investment in the sector. -
Dakota Access Judge Tightens Oversight Citing Keystone Rupture
Dec 5, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Harris
Citing the Keystone pipeline rupture in South Dakota last month, the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit over the Dakota Access pipeline ordered its builders, opponents and the Army Corps of Engineers to give him a spill-response plan by April 1. -
Nebraska Regulators Set Hearings To Review Keystone XL Decision
Dec 5, 2017 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Ben Lefebvre
Nebraska Public Service Commission will hold a hearing on Dec. 12 for TransCanada and environmental groups to argue it should reconsider its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline. -
Rover Supply Laterals, Compressors Ready For Service, Pipeline Tells FERC
Dec 5, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jeremiah Shelor
Rover Pipeline LLC is ready to place three eastern Ohio supply laterals and associated compressor stations into service this month, the operator told FERC Friday. -
Court Slated To Hear Arguments Over States' CWA Powers To Block Pipelines
Dec 4, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit is poised to hear arguments in a dispute between federal energy regulators and New York over the state's effort to block a natural gas pipeline by withholding its approval under the Clean Water Act (CWA), a case that could set a precedent for North Carolina's efforts to block a different pipeline. -
District Court Judge Weighs EPA Capacity For Air Toxics Reviews
Dec 4, 2017 | Inside EPA
A federal district court judge is requesting more information on EPA's capacity to conduct air toxics risk reviews as it moves toward the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists seeking to force issuance of overdue reviews, while EPA science advisers prepare to discuss the agency's approach to “screening” in the reviews. -
Ozone Delays at EPA Draw Lawsuit From Environmental Groups
Dec 5, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer Lu
Environmental groups made good on their promise to sue the EPA over delays in determining the areas in the U.S. where air quality doesn't meet federal ozone standards. -
Planes, Trains and Automobiles—America's New Pollution King
Dec 5, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tom Randall
For the first time in 40 years, power plants are no longer the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. That dubious distinction now belongs to the transport sector: cars, trucks, planes, trains and boats. -
Ewire: NAM Launches Coalition To Fight Plaintiffs' Environmental Tort Suits
Dec 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and other industry groups have quietly launched a new coalition, known as the Manufacturers' Accountability Project (MAP), to fight what is expected to be increasing litigation by states, environmentalists and other plaintiffs to force businesses to address climate change and other environmental issues.
Industry and Association News
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Environment News
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Dec 4, 2017 | Staffing Industry Analysts
Economists surveyed by the National Association for Business Economics maintained their growth projections for the US economy in 2017, the association announced today. The median forecast calls real GDP growth of 2.2% this year, unchanged from the September 2017 estimate. However, the economists slightly increased the median forecast for real GDP growth in 2018 to 2.5%, up from 2.4% in the September estimate.
Real GDP grew 1.6% in 2016.
“Results from the NABE December 2017 Outlook Survey show that panelists’ expectations are only slightly revised from those in the September 2017 Outlook Survey,” said NABE VP Kevin Swift, chief economist at American Chemistry Council.
Panelists now forecast nonfarm payroll growth to average 167,000 jobs per month in 2017, down from 178,000 in the September survey and below the actual job gains of 187,000 per month in 2016. The panel’s forecast for 2018 continues to reflect a further slowdown in job creation — to 158,000 per month, down slightly from the 160,000 projection in the September survey.
Despite the slower job growth projection, the unemployment rate is expected to average 4.4% this year, unchanged from the September forecast. The forecast for 2018 reflects further improvement to 4.1%, revised from the 4.2% rate projected in the prior survey. The economists expect the unemployment rate to average 4.1% in the first half of 2018 and 4.0% through the second half of next year.
Expectations for hourly compensation growth in 2017 are weaker than those projected in the September survey at 2.0%, compared to 2.3% in the previous survey. However, the panel expects hourly compensation growth to accelerate to 3.0% in 2018 and foresees wage growth outpacing inflation in both years.
NABE is a professional association for business economists and others who use economics in the workplace. The survey included 51 forecasters and was conducted between Nov. 6 and Nov. 15, 2017.
https://www2.staffingindustry.com/Editorial/Daily-News/NABE-economists-still-project-2.2-growth-in-GDP-this-year-but-lower-job-growth-outlook-44335
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(ACC Mentioned) Wrap Recycling Action Program expands to Omaha, Nebraska
Dec 4, 2017 | Recycling Today
The Flexible Film Recycling Group (FFRG) of the Washington-based American Chemistry Council (ACC) joined partners in Omaha, Nebraska, during the first weekend in December to launch a new campaign designed to increase recycling of plastic wraps and bags in the city. Representatives from the FFRG, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and First Star Recycling material recovery facility (MRF) were on-site at four Hy-Vee grocery stores to educate consumers about the campaign and encourage them to recycle plastic wraps and bags at participating retail and grocery stores.
The Omaha campaign is part of the Wrap Recycling Action Program (WRAP), a public-private partnership that promotes plastic wrap and bag recycling.
Consumers in Omaha and across the nation can recycle clean and dry plastic bags, such grocery bags, produce bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags, newspaper bags and food storage bags (even sealable food bags and bags with zippers); plastic wraps from beverage cases, diapers, bathroom tissue and paper towels; bubble wrap and shipping pillows. Any thin, flexible plastic wrap labeled with a No. 2, No. 4, or the How2Recycle store drop-off label can be recycled more than 18,000 retail locations in the U.S.
The WRAP launch in Omaha coincided with a promotional event for the Hefty Energy Bag Program, which the city has participated in for more than a year. The Energy Bag Program allows consumers to separate nonrecyclable plastics from their garbage. The separated plastics are collected at MRFs and converted into fuel. Omaha’s WRAP campaign and Energy Bag Program will help the city to divert more plastics from landfill, the ACC says.
“We’re thrilled to work with our partners in Omaha to educate consumers about recycling plastic wraps and bags,” says Shari Jackson, director of film recycling for ACC. “Omaha residents can play an important role in keeping these items out of landfill by bringing their plastic wraps and bags to a Hy-Vee grocery store or other participating retailer for recycling.”
She adds, “Recycling plastic wraps and bags at retail drop-off locations instead of through curbside collection programs helps ensure that this material does not damage equipment at the local MRF. Moreover, recycling plastic wraps and bags at grocery and retail locations helps keep the material clean and dry, which is critical to maintaining quality for recycling.”
National WRAP partners include the FFRG, the U.S. EPA, GreenBlue/the Sustainable Packaging Coalition, the Association of Plastics Recyclers, brand companies, retailers, states, cities and others.
These bags and wraps are recycled into products such as lumber for backyard decks, fences and benches and new bags and packaging.
http://www.recyclingtoday.com/article/retail-platic-bag-wrap-recycling-omaha-nebraska/
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States Warn Of Economic Impacts If EPA Strategic Plan Drops SMM Effort
Dec 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Suzanne Yohannan
State waste managers are raising concerns that EPA's omission of sustainable materials management (SMM) from the agency's draft multi-year strategic plan will cause economic harm, making the United States less competitive with other countries that are pursuing a circular economy.
The fears add to concerns state regulators expressed earlier this year when they cited objections to a measure in the Trump administration's proposed fiscal year 2018 budget request that would eliminate EPA's waste recycling and minimization program.
In Oct. 31 comments to EPA on its draft FY18-22 strategic plan, the Association of State & Territorial Solid Waste Management Officials (ASTSWMO) says the agency does not mention SMM or waste minimization and recycling "anywhere" in the draft plan, "yet reduction, reuse and recycling can all be strategies for preventing contamination.”
The group's criticisms on SMM are in addition to general concerns from ASTSWMO over inconsistencies between several of the strategic plan's objectives and significant cuts across the agency's programs, including grants to states to carry out delegated programs. "EPA must reconcile this inconsistency in the budget proposal, ensuring that sufficient funds are available to achieve the stated goals and objectives."]
On the issue of waste minimization, the group notes that earlier this year it submitted comments on a draft waste office national program manager guidance, objecting to the budget proposal to eliminate the waste minimization and recycling program, arguing that eliminating it "will impact the success States and EPA have had on waste reduction, diversion, and recycling goals." They note that recycling has been a long-standing program that results in thousands of jobs, lowers pollution, brings valuable commodities to the economy, conserves resources and has large public support.
The group adds that newer SMM programs are aiding in reuse and reduction of waste. But they warn that "By not including sustainable materials management in EPA's strategic plan, the country will lose competitive, economic advantage with other countries that are investing in materials management and working towards a circular economy."
Former EPA waste chief Mathy Stanislaus -- who touted SMM efforts during his tenure in the Obama administration -- told Inside EPA in a Nov. 30 interview that the SMM program should not only be preserved, but enhanced. Stanislaus, who said he is unfamiliar with the agency's internal deliberations on the matter, now is a senior adviser to the World Economic Forum and a circular economy fellow at the World Resources Institute.
By enhancing, he said he means fully funding the program and investing much in implementation of an SMM strategic plan developed during his time at the agency. The plan was developed with significant input from states and the private sector, and would result in economic opportunities as well as environmental benefits, he said.
Aligning Requirements
He also noted that the federal government plays a tremendous role in aligning requirements between states in order to try to maximize business-to-business transactions. For instance, in an article for the January/February 2018 issue of the Environmental Law Institute's The Environmental Forum, Stanislaus says differences among states on whether an interstate transfer of secondary materials is a transfer of feedstock for manufacturing or is waste management has created a barrier to using secondary materials. He cites as an example that Ohio's regulations differ from nearby states. He noted in the interview EPA's role of harmonizing such requirements among states.
He called SMM critically important at this time, pointing to EPA's role of developing partnerships with states aimed at determining how to advance opportunities to capture used materials as a feedstock in an efficient way and its role in working with businesses to identify some of those opportunities.
Noting the attention the Trump administration is giving to state-federal cooperation, Stanislaus said this is one area in which EPA should engage states, adding that it is an area that touches on job creation and manufacturing.
One industry source though suggests that while the de-emphasis on SMM and recycling from the budget request and strategic plan may reflect the Trump EPA's initial thinking on the programs, the view from Trump administration officials may have changed as the SMM and waste minimization and recycling programs continue to be active at the agency. On the sustainability front, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt also recently highlighted food waste reduction in a visit to Walt Disney World in Florida, according to news reports.
ASTSWMO also cites concerns about EPA cutting support to state underground storage tank (UST) compliance programs -- which includes support for training, compliance assistance and inspections -- in the draft strategic plan. In its comments, ASTSWMO says that a 2014 study by the state group found that EPA grants pay for about half of state UST programs across the country, and EPA investments in state programs have helped prevent UST releases since 2003.
"Eliminating EPA support to State UST compliance programs will hinder the States' ability to prevent UST releases, resulting in an increase of confirmed releases and contaminated sites," ASTSWMO says.
The group adds that "While an increase in [leaking underground storage tank (LUST)] sites and cleanups may be helpful in meeting EPA's strategic measure of completing more LUST cleanups, it cannot be at the expense of prevention." Among the strategic measures EPA lists in the strategic plan is to "[c]omplete additional leaking underground storage tank (LUST) cleanups that meet risk-based standards for human exposure and groundwater migration."
States' Concerns
The agency's emphasis on making Superfund, brownfields and Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA) sites "ready for anticipated use" (RAU) is also raising some concerns among states. On the RCRA measure related to RAU, ASTSWMO says that making a site RAU often necessitates state collaboration. "The document mentions competitive monies for States, communities, etc., but once again provides no real clarity on how much States will participate in the process and what, if any, changes in funding will be made," the group says.
On making additional Superfund sites RAU site-wide, the Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality in comments on the draft strategic plan advises EPA to talk to states before making RAU determinations, as states may have localized information important to such decisions. In the past, EPA has failed to discuss such matters with states before making a RAU determination, it says. Also, "EPA should evaluate legal mechanisms to assure developers that they will incur no Superfund liability for acquiring and developing deleted Superfund sites that are RAU," it says. The state notes that no mechanisms exist to offer this assurance, other than for brownfields sites.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/states-warn-economic-impacts-if-epa-strategic-plan-drops-smm-effort
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EPA Launches New PFAS Initiative
Dec 4, 2017 | Inside EPA
EPA is launching a new, cross-agency workgroup to address the persistent class of chemicals known as per and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), in an effort to help a growing number of states, localities and tribes that are struggling to deal with the chemicals in their jurisdictions.
The agency issued a Dec. 4 statement that says the new PFAS imitative includes several actions, including identifying “a set of near-term actions EPA will take to help support local communities”; enhancing “coordination with states, tribes and federal partners to provide communities with critical information and tools to address PFAS”; increasing EPA's “ongoing research efforts to identify new methods for measuring PFAS and filling data gaps”; and increasing risk communication efforts with states, tribes, localities and the public about PFAS' health effects.
EPA's water and research offices “will lead these efforts and will bring together expertise from across the Agency, including top scientists from EPA’s air, chemicals, land, research, and water offices,” the agency's statement says. In addition to a cross-program effort, EPA is also tapping its regional offices to enhance cooperation with partners at the state and local levels, to provide on-the-ground knowledge about specific issues,” the statement says.
EPA's statement adds that these actions are intended to “build on” the water office's drinking water advisories for two PFAS chemicals, PFOA and PFOS, released last year, that recommended a 70 part-per trillion level for the substances.
EPA has yet to set any enforceable drinking water standards for PFAS chemicals.
“Protecting public health is EPA’s highest priority and through these efforts we are taking the lead to ensure that communities across the country have the tools they need to address these chemicals,” Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a the statement. “The work we are doing shows our commitment to clean air, land, and water and to working side-by-side with our state, local, and tribal partners.”
EPA's lack of regulation has been a sore point for some state regulators. “Because [PFAS] are unregulated contaminants, it puts states in a tough position of having to basically recreate everything … because its not on normal contaminant lists and makes it difficult fit into the normal framework for cleanup,” Barbara Morrissey, a Washington state toxicologist who also chairs EPA's Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee said during the panel's Nov. 29 meeting in Washington, D.C.
“It would really help states take action if EPA could move forward as quickly as possible,” Morrissey added.
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/epa-launches-new-pfas-initiative
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EU Extends Glyphosate Licence By 5 Years
Dec 4, 2017 | Chemistry World
By Jamie Durrani
Extending herbicide’s approval until December 2022 has pleased neither industry nor environmental campaigners
The European commission has voted to renew its approval for glyphosate herbicide for an additional five years. The decision ends months of deadlock with 18 member states voting in favour, nine against and one abstention.
Glyphosate, originally developed by Monsanto as the active ingredient in Roundup, is the world’s most widely used herbicide and has been used for several decades. The current EU approval for glyphosate was due to expire on 15 December, but moves to renew the license had stalled with insufficient support from member states either in favour or against the proposals.
Last year, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) stated that glyphosate is ‘probably carcinogenic to humans’. However, IARC’s analysis has been criticised for focusing on hazard rather than risk, and ignoring evidence from extensive industry field trials. In March the European Chemicals Agency concluded that there is no evidence that glyphosate causes cancer in humans – a finding that has also been reached by the European Food Safety Authority and numerous other national authorities.
Over 1 million people across Europe have signed the ‘Stop Glyphosate’ European Citizens’ Initiative, with the organisers presenting their case at a public hearing on 20 November. Following the decision to renew glyphosate’s license, the commission will outline its legal and political responses to the initiative before the end of 2017.
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/eu-extends-glyphosate-licence-by-5-years/3008384.article
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(ACC Mentioned) West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice: China Deal Is ‘Serious’
Dec 4, 2017 | Wheeling Intelligencer
By Casey Junkins
WHEELING — Although relatively short on specifics during a Monday press conference, Gov. Jim Justice showed plenty of enthusiasm for what he termed a “deathly serious” $83.7 billion China Energy investment plan for shale natural gas and petrochemical projects in West Virginia.
“China wouldn’t be sending 28 people if they weren’t deathly serious about the whole thing,” Justice said. “They are traveling around the state and looking at sites and doing all kinds of different work.
“It’s more money than anybody can even imagine,” he added.
Almost one month has passed since West Virginia Secretary of Commerce Woody Thrasher went to Beijing to sign a memorandum of understanding with Chinese officials while in the presence of both President Donald Trump and China’s president, Xi Jinping. Details, however, remain somewhat scarce, although natural gas-fired power plants in Brooke and Harrison counties reportedly are among the initial investment plans.
Other opportunities could include ethane crackers and storage areas.
On Monday, Justice said he and other leaders met with some of the 28 Chinese team members in Morgantown for a general discussion. He also said West Virginia University President E. Gordon Gee and Thrasher took the delegation to a WVU basketball game.
When asked for more information about the deal, Justice said he could not reveal details because of a “confidentiality agreement.” He also declined to provide an estimate of when more information would be forthcoming.
If China officials reach the $83.7 billion investment figure, it will be more than double the $35 billion total which West Virginia University Energy Institute Director Brian Anderson estimates drillers, frackers, processors and pipeliners have spent in the Mountain State since the Marcellus and Utica shale boom began several years ago. It will also be more than the state’s annual gross domestic product — the total value of all goods and services produced in the state, which WVU Bureau of Business and Economic Research Director John Deskins said is about $75 billion.
Anderson recently discussed the results of a study to determine the best locations for underground storage caverns to create an Appalachian storage hub for natural gas liquids. This alone could lead to 100,000 permanent jobs in the Marcellus Shale region, according to the American Chemistry Council.
Several of the areas the study lists as “top-rated” for storing ethane, propane, butane or other natural gas liquids are in the Upper Ohio Valley. Presently, Mountaineer NGL Storage is working on such a project along the Ohio River in Clarington. Although this is in Ohio, the facility will connect to West Virginia by pipeline.
Justice said he believes West Virginia can be the hub of which Anderson speaks. If this occurs, the governor said the ultimate Chinese investment could be “substantially even higher” than the $83.7 billion outlined in the memorandum of understanding.
http://www.theintelligencer.net/news/top-headlines/2017/12/west-virginia-gov-jim-justice-china-deal-is-serious/
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(ACC Mentioned) OPEC Extends Oil Cuts To 2019
Dec 5, 2017 | Breakbulk
Members of Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries have agreed to extend current production limits through 2018, providing reassurance for breakbulk operators and a boost for investment in the sector.
The current production caps, agreed by OPEC earlier this year, have been extended to include Nigeria and Libya, and will last throughout 2018 in a bid to sustain higher oil prices and maintain confidence in the sector.
“In view of the uncertainties associated mainly with supply and, to some extent, demand growth, it is intended that in June 2018, the opportunity for further adjustment actions will be considered based on prevailing market conditions and the progress achieved towards rebalancing of the oil market at that time,” OPEC said in statement
Breakbulk operators serving the oil sector have faced a difficult outlook for 2018 as weak oil prices have made forecasts difficult and cast doubt on many construction or renewal projects and it is hoped the extension will provide a more positive operating environment.
“Without the extension of the cuts the market would have reverted to excess supply and potentially materially lower oil prices in 2018,” said Matt Cook, senior analyst at consultancy Westwood.
Oil dips below US$58 as shale growth remains threat
Despite the show of support from OPEC the price for WTI Crude has dropped below US$58 per barrel since the announcement last week as investors remain cautious of an increase in U.S. drilling rigs against OPEC’s cuts
“The OPEC deal will mostly work for non-OPEC … Even if OPEC delivers the cuts promised, and prices stay high long enough, the main result will be that U.S. shale adds on close to 1 million barrels a day of additional production,” said Eugen Weinberg, analyst at Commerzbank.
Three of the largest independent U.S. shale producers – Pioneer Natural Resources, Parsley Energy and Newfield Exploration – have agreed, however, that they won’t increase activity to take advantage of prices rises, but will maintain spending discipline and generate profits instead.
U.S. petrochemicals drive further breakbulk growth
Whether independent shale producers decide to grow shale exports or not it seems certain that U.S. shale production will flourish as domestic petrochemicals demand grows.
According to the American Chemical Council, or ACC, new petrochemical project announcements linked to shale are now valued at $185 billion, from more than 310 projects and these construction projects are forecast to drive a new wave of demand for breakbulk services, with the Gulf region dominating and increasing interest in the Northeast region.
“Investment will translate into an estimated 821,000 permanent new jobs by 2025 … This is the equivalent of 40 percent of the replacement value for the entire U.S. chemical industry stock. The advantages for the Appalachia chemicals and plastics industry are huge,” said Martha Moore, senior director of economics at ACC.
http://www.breakbulk.com/news-opec-extends-oil-cuts-2019/
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Dakota Access Judge Tightens Oversight Citing Keystone Rupture
Dec 5, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Andrew Harris
Citing the Keystone pipeline rupture in South Dakota last month, the federal judge overseeing a lawsuit over the Dakota Access pipeline ordered its builders, opponents and the Army Corps of Engineers to give him a spill-response plan by April 1.
Judge James E. Boasberg issued the order Dec. 4 in response to Native American tribes’ requests he clamp down on the conduit while the corps conducts a court-ordered re-evaluation of its impact on their hunting and fishing rights and other aspects. In October, the judge rejected their request in Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Eng'rs that he order the pipeline turned off for that review .
“There is a pressing need for such ongoing monitoring,” Boasberg said, noting TransCanada Corp's Keystone conduit had spilled about 210,000 gallons of oil. The judge cautioned he wasn't suggesting a Dakota Access leak was imminent, just acknowledging the ”inherent risk.”
In addition to a spill-response plan, the judge directed the Energy Transfer Partners LP-led Dakota Access LLC to select an independent third-party auditor—in conjunction with the suing Standing Rock and Cheyenne River Sioux bands—to keep him apprised of circumstances near the pipeline's contested Lake Oahe crossing in North Dakota. That report is also due April 1.
He ordered Dakota Access to file bi-monthly pipeline status reports, the first due at the end of December.
The tribes sued unsuccessfully to halt completion of the 1,172-mile conduit last year. Vicki Granado, a spokeswoman for the Dallas-based Energy Transfer, didn't immediately respond to request for comment.
The case is Standing Rock Sioux Tribe v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 16-cv-01534, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124519677&vname=dennotallissues&fn=124519677&jd=124519677
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Nebraska Regulators Set Hearings To Review Keystone XL Decision
Dec 5, 2017 | PoliticoPro - Whiteboard
By Ben Lefebvre
Nebraska Public Service Commission will hold a hearing on Dec. 12 for TransCanada and environmental groups to argue it should reconsider its decision on the Keystone XL pipeline.
The PSC last month approved a route for the controversial Keystone XL that did not follow the path the Calgary-based company originally proposed. That could force TransCanada to apply for additional permits.
The company, which asked for the additional hearing in late November, has said it is still reviewing the PSC's decision.
Besides TransCanada, the Sierra Club and Nebraska landowners also requested to approach the board during the hearing, the notice said. Each party will have 20 minutes to discuss the commission's decision. The commission will not make a decision based on the hearings until a later date, the PSC said.
https://www.politicopro.com/energy/whiteboard
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Rover Supply Laterals, Compressors Ready For Service, Pipeline Tells FERC
Dec 5, 2017 | Natural Gas Intelligence
By Jeremiah Shelor
Rover Pipeline LLC is ready to place three eastern Ohio supply laterals and associated compressor stations into service this month, the operator told FERC Friday.
In a filing posted to the project docket Monday, Rover asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to authorize service on the 3.7-mile, 24-inch diameter Berne Lateral, the 25.6-mile, 42-inch Seneca Lateral and the 32.6-mile, 42-inch Clarington Lateral [CP15-93].
Rover is also seeking authorization to place the Clarington, Seneca and Cadiz compressor stations into service, as well as seven meter stations.
The facilities in Ohio’s Noble, Monroe and Harrison counties, could potentially increase takeaway capacity on the designed 3.25 Bcf/d mega project.
Rover began partial service, including east-to-west flows on its Mainline A from Cadiz, OH, to Defiance, OH, at the start of September. Prior to a recent drop in receipts at Cadiz Rover had been flowing just under 1 Bcf/d.
The current maximum operating capacity for deliveries into Defiance is 1.7 Bcf/d, according to information available through Rover's electronic bulletin board.
Rover asked FERC to issue an in-service authorization for the facilities by Dec. 14 "so that its shippers can make the requisite contractual and operational arrangements...Rover's shippers have urgently requested Rover to place these facilities in service to allow their stranded natural gas supplies to be transported to Midwest markets."
Rover submitted photo documentation of its construction progress to FERC and said it is "proceeding with restoration activities at the compressor stations workspaces with grading, reseeding and completion of fencing at the perimeter of the permanent station yard."
Construction at the meter stations is complete, with facilities now fenced and graveled, Rover said. For the laterals, "trenches are now filled and graded. In various locations, restoration is completed whereas the remaining areas will be maintained" using an approved construction plan, with reseeding planned for spring.
The 713-mile, 3.25 Bcf/d Rover is designed to deliver Marcellus and Utica shale volumes to markets in the Midwest, Gulf Coast and Canada. Backer Energy Transfer Partners LP has said it plans to complete the next phase of the project by the end of the year. The full designed capacity -- including service to an interconnect with the Vector Pipeline in Michigan and to the Dawn Hub in Ontario -- is scheduled to come online by the end of the first quarter.
Additional service on Rover would be welcome news for Northeast producers, who have been ramping up output in recent months. PointLogic Energy models show Northeast dry production averaging around 26.7 Bcf/d month-to-date, up sharply from 24.7 Bcf/d in October.
Meanwhile, last week FERC denied Rover's rehearing request appealing the Commission's decision not to issue a blanket authorization for routine construction activities on the project. FERC had denied the blanket authorization based on concerns that Rover had acquired and demolished an old Ohio house near one of its compressor stations to intentionally bypass federal historic preservation regulations.
http://www.naturalgasintel.com/articles/112625-rover-supply-laterals-compressors-ready-for-service-pipeline-tells-ferc
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Court Slated To Hear Arguments Over States' CWA Powers To Block Pipelines
Dec 4, 2017 | Inside EPA
By Dawn Reeves
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit is poised to hear arguments in a dispute between federal energy regulators and New York over the state's effort to block a natural gas pipeline by withholding its approval under the Clean Water Act (CWA), a case that could set a precedent for North Carolina's efforts to block a different pipeline.
The court will hear arguments Dec. 5 in New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) v. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), where the court has blocked construction of the Millennium Pipeline Company’s Valley Lateral Project after the state denied its water quality certification under section 401 of the CWA due to lack of information.
The state's denial of its CWA section 401 certification, which gives states authority to block federally approved projects if they harm water quality, prompted FERC to issue a first-of-its-kind decision in September that New York officials waited too long in their denial, missing a one-year deadline to do so, and effectively waiving their section 401 authority, a decision that some said is likely precedential for other pipeline projects.
NYSDEC challenged FERC's ruling, though the court that has already ruled in the state's favor on the same issue when it upheld the 401 denial for the Constitution Pipeline in an Aug. 18 ruling that reaffirmed states have power to block federally approved instate projects on environmental grounds.
The court dismissed an alternative argument advanced by Constitution's operators that the denial was voided due to the amount of time the state took to issue it and that the Natural Gas Act requires challenges to the timeliness of section 401 decisions to be filed with the D.C. Circuit, so the 2nd Circuit lacked jurisdiction.
Despite the 2nd Circuit's ruling, FERC Oct. 27 gave the Millennium pipeline's operator a notice to proceed to construction.
And the state won an emergency stay prohibiting construction from commencing when the 2nd Circuit Nov. 3 granted the state's motion in the case while the litigation proceeds over whether FERC improperly usurped the state's section 401 authority, which requires states affected by interstate water projects that would discharge into their waters certify that projects meet CWA requirements.
The FERC waiver decision was prompted by a different case over the same project in the D.C. Circuit that had been brought by Millennium and held that FERC had to rule on the waiver dispute administratively.
NYSDEC has since asked FERC to reconsider its waiver order -- a reconsideration FERC denied Nov. 15.
FERC has also filed a Nov. 20 opposition, noting that the emergency stay is moot since FERC has since denied the reconsideration request, and the state can challenge that denial on the merits. FERC also argues against a stay of construction during the merits litigation, saying the state does not meet the strict criteria for a stay.
“The Department has failed to demonstrate the extraordinary circumstances required for this Court to stay pipeline construction,” FERC says. “The Department is not likely to succeed on its claim that it can toll the statutory one-year limitation period until it deems a request for certification to be 'complete' when the plain language of the statute confers no such authority. Nor can the Department demonstrate actual or imminent irreparable injury from environmental harm it speculates 'could' occur during appellate review.”
One industry source praised FERC's action, saying the commission “did the right thing” in determining New York had waived its authority. “If FERC had not done this, a bunch of states would have repeated this stupid, juvenile delinquent behavior,” the source said.
Atlantic Coast Pipeline
As the 2nd Circuit prepares to hear arguments, North Carolina is now refusing to issue its clean water certification for a different pipeline, possibly replicating the dispute in the Tar Heel State, though a statutory deadline has not yet passed in that case.
North Carolina officials sent a Nov. 28 letter to officials building the Atlantic Coast Pipeline seeking an unusual fourth round of additional information about the environmental impacts of the pipeline before it will grant its water quality certification under section 401.
The letter says the project's indirect and cumulative effects screening lacked analysis of the potential impact on water quality. Staff suggested that maps of water and sewer infrastructure be overlaid with the pipeline route, water resources, roadway infrastructure and more in order to identify areas with potential to experience project-induced growth, and that once those areas are identified, then each of those areas must be analyzed.
The letter notes that the applicant must provide the sought-after information in 30 days, and the state 60 days to review the information. The original application was received May 8.
“Please be aware that you have no authorization under the Section 401 of the Clean Water Act . . . for this activity and any work done within the waters of the state or protected riparian buffers may be a violation of North Carolina General Statutes and Administrative Code,” the letter warns.
A local press report says the project developers say they intend to provide the information by the deadline.
North Carolina's seeking more information mirrors earlier efforts by New York officials who ultimately denied granting a section 401 certification for the Valley Lateral Project due to lack of information provided by the company.
And while North Carolina still has four months under the one-year deadline to address its section 401 authority, the issue could be replicated if the state is unsatisfied with the level of analysis the Atlantic Coast Pipeline provides between now and then, and does not make a decision by the one-year mark.
FERC's Filing
FERC's filing to the 2nd Circuit in the Millennium case cites 16 emergency requests to “interfere with the effectiveness of Commission natural gas certification orders” in the past six years, all of which were denied, including three in the 2nd Circuit. “The Department has presented no legitimate reason why this Court should reach any different decision here.”
NYSDEC says in a Nov. 28 reply that while the emergency petition is not necessary, the court should bar the pipeline from beginning construction during the merits proceedings, in order to “prevent irreparable harm to NYSDEC's sovereign interests in protection state water quality an irreversible effects on the environment. . . .
“Absent a stay, Millennium will begin construction of the project immediately and could be finished in a few months.”
The filing notes that construction “will involve permanent environmental impacts” including clearing trees, grading, building trenches and more. “Construction could negatively impact water quality in waterbodies crossed by the pipeline in increasing erosion, turbidity, and water temperature. . . . Without a stay, the project will be constructed without a section 401 certificate before this Court can review the merits of NYSDEC's challenge to the underlying FERC orders. NYSDEC could succeed on the merits but the pipeline would be in the ground. . . . That is the very definition of irreparable injury.”
The state adds that it has always asserted the one-year deadline would begin when the application was complete -- and environmentalists have warned that if FERC prevails here then other pipelines could simply withhold information as a way to force states to waive their CWA authority.
https://insideepa.com/daily-news/court-slated-hear-arguments-over-states-cwa-powers-block-pipelines
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District Court Judge Weighs EPA Capacity For Air Toxics Reviews
Dec 4, 2017 | Inside EPA
A federal district court judge is requesting more information on EPA's capacity to conduct air toxics risk reviews as it moves toward the conclusion of a lawsuit brought by environmentalists seeking to force issuance of overdue reviews, while EPA science advisers prepare to discuss the agency's approach to “screening” in the reviews.
Eight years after EPA issues national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants for industry sectors, the Clean Air Act requires the agency to conduct risk and technology reviews (RTRs) to determine whether “residual” risks remain, and whether new, cost-effective technologies have emerged to further reduce pollution. If EPA determines there are remaining risks, or new technology, or both, it can tighten emissions limits.
However, the agency has fallen far behind schedule in conducting RTRs, drawing a series of lawsuits from environmentalists and deadlines set by courts to complete reviews. The agency is already under judicial deadlines to complete dozens of reviews in the next three years.
In one such suit, Community In-Power and Development Association, et al., v. EPA, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia at a hearing Nov. 30 considered environmentalists' motion for the court to set deadlines for reviews in nine industry sectors. The sectors are: primary copper smelting; carbon black production; cyanide chemicals manufacturing; spandex production; flexible polyurethane foam fabrication operations; refractory products manufacturing; semiconductor manufacturing; primary magnesium refining; and mercury emissions from mercury cell chlor-alkali plants.
According to Law360, Jackson said she may ask for more information on EPA's available resources to help her decide how much time is appropriate for EPA to issue the reviews. In such cases, there are typically no material differences as to the facts -- EPA missed its deadlines -- but the parties often differ as to remedy, with environmentalists typically pushing a faster review schedule than EPA wants.
In the case, EPA is seeking a 2025 deadline for completion of the nine reviews, but environmentalists say this is unreasonably long. They further question whether EPA has made its task more difficult by diverting staff away from RTRs, which are mandated by law, to “discretionary” regulatory reform efforts directed by the Trump administration.
Environmentalists instead seek a deadline of two years for EPA to complete all the rules.
Meanwhile, EPA's Science Advisory Board (SAB) RTR panel is due to hold a teleconference Dec. 6 to discuss its draft report to EPA on the agency's “screening” methods to determine when more in-depth risk analysis is needed for a risk review in a given sector.
The draft report is broadly supportive of EPA's risk screening framework, but takes issue with some specific aspects of it.
For example, “SAB found that the method’s reliance on census block centroid locations was not sufficient to ensure that receptors are representative of residential areas near the facilities” emitting toxic substances. This reflects longstanding concerns among environmentalists that exposure and hence risk is highest among communities living close to industrial facilities, not necessarily in the “centroid” of a census block.
On the screening method as a whole, the draft report says, “SAB also finds the case studies to be missing or inadequate for a thorough or detailed assessment of the application of the methods described. The SAB, therefore, could not assess the operational effectiveness, in aggregate, such as how many facilities are screened out, or passed to more detailed analysis, by the screening methods.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/district-court-judge-weighs-epa-capacity-air-toxics-reviews
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Ozone Delays at EPA Draw Lawsuit From Environmental Groups
Dec 5, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Jennifer Lu
Environmental groups made good on their promise to sue the EPA over delays in determining the areas in the U.S. where air quality doesn't meet federal ozone standards.
The Dec. 4 lawsuit, brought by the American Lung Association, American Public Health Association, Sierra Club, and others, comes after the Environmental Protection Agency rolled past its Oct. 1 deadline and then delivered a partial list of the areas where ozone levels met national requirements. The lawsuit asks a federal district court to compel the EPA to complete the designations process.
The Sierra Club has received funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable organization founded by Michael Bloomberg, the ultimate owner of Bloomberg Environment.
“Everyone should be concerned,” Paul Billings, senior vice president of advocacy at American Lung Association, told Bloomberg Environment. “EPA is clearly not following the law. Which means the public is not hearing the truth about dangerous air quality in their communities and not starting the process to clean up the air.”
Without non-attainment area designations, states can't begin to work on several pollution reduction plans, whose deadlines take effect only after those decisions are made. However, many states must begin meeting the new standards in 2020, with states with the worst ozone pollution coming into attainment in 2037.
The EPA updated its 8-hour ozone standards from 75 parts per billion to 70 ppb after the agency concluded the previous standard was not sufficient to protect public health and welfare.
EPA Plans Two-Step Process
The EPA declined to comment on the lawsuit but, the agency plans to complete the ozone designations in a two-step process, William Wehrum, assistant administrator for the EPA's air office, told Bloomberg Environment in a recent interview. The EPA fulfilled step one Nov. 6 when it announced which areas were in compliance, he said.
The agency stalled on “the more difficult decisions” of deciding the “different flavors of non-attainment” because the EPA didn't have a rubric in place for the deciding a non-attainment area's degree of severity, Wehrum said.
Ground-level ozone, one of six common air pollutants harmful to public health, is formed by fossil fuel combustion, including from power plants, cars and trucks, reacting in the presence of sunlight.
The EPA already has all the information it needs to make designations, Seth Johnson the EarthJustice attorney who is representing the public health groups, told Bloomberg Environment.
“This is not complicated,” Johnson said. “This is just the EPA, [Administrator Scott] Pruitt, refusing to do what the law clearly requires despite having all the information, all the tools, all the expertise they need to do what they're supposed to do.”
About 36 percent of the population lives in parts of the country where the air quality does not meet the old ozone standards, according to a May 22 Congressional Research Service report.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124519664&vname=dennotallissues&fn=124519664&jd=124519664
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Planes, Trains and Automobiles—America's New Pollution King
Dec 5, 2017 | BNA Daily Environment Report
By Tom Randall
For the first time in 40 years, power plants are no longer the biggest source of U.S. greenhouse gas pollution. That dubious distinction now belongs to the transport sector: cars, trucks, planes, trains and boats.
The big reversal didn't happen because transportation emissions have been increasing. In fact, since 2000 the U.S. has experienced the flattest stretch of transportation-related pollution in modern recordkeeping, according to data compiled by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The big change has come from the cleanup of America's electric grid.
The chart below shows carbon dioxide emissions from transportation exceeding those from electricity production in 2016 for the first time since 1978. The pollution gap has continued to widen further in 2017, according to a Bloomberg analysis.
Electricity use in the U.S. hasn't declined much in the last decade, but it's being generated from cleaner sources. A dramatic switch away from coal, the dirtiest fuel, is mostly responsible for the drop in emissions. Coal power has declined by more than a third in the last decade, according to the EIA, while cleaner natural gas has soared more than 60 percent. Wind and solar power are also increasingly sucking the greenhouse gases out of U.S. electricity production.
This is good news, and not just because carbon dioxide emissions are the biggest contributor to global climate change. The shift to cleaner energy also has immediate local improvements to health by reducing the burden of asthma, cancer and heart disease.
The transportation sector is also entering a critical period of reformation. Cars are becoming more efficient under aggressive pollution rules passed under President Barack Obama, but that's so far been offset by an ever-rising American appetite for SUVs, crossovers and pickup trucks. Even the nation's clean-air policies could soon change. The Trump administration is considering rolling back the toughest fuel-efficiency standards, which are set to take effect in the early 2020s.
Investments in electric cars may soon begin to do to the transportation sector what wind and solar have done to the power sector: turn the pollution curve upside down. The price of battery packs has been plummeting by about 8 percent a year, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance, and electric cars are now projected to become cheaper, more reliable, and more convenient than their gasoline-powered equivalents around the world by the mid-2020s.
When the electrification of the U.S. auto fleet begins in earnest, pollution from the two biggest energy sectors—electricity and transportation—may ultimately converge. Those electric cars are going draw their power from the grid.
http://news.bna.com/deln/DELNWB/split_display.adp?fedfid=124519676&vname=dennotallissues&fn=124519676&jd=124519676
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Ewire: NAM Launches Coalition To Fight Plaintiffs' Environmental Tort Suits
Dec 5, 2017 | Inside EPA
The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and other industry groups have quietly launched a new coalition, known as the Manufacturers' Accountability Project (MAP), to fight what is expected to be increasing litigation by states, environmentalists and other plaintiffs to force businesses to address climate change and other environmental issues.
The news was first reported by the Washington Examiner, which says the group is already planning to push back against an investigation by Democratic state attorneys general, led by New York's Eric Schneiderman, into claims that ExxonMobil suppressed information about climate change after its own scientists warned it would harm their business.
The group also plans to fight efforts by states to expand a precedent set last month by a California state appeals court that used a nuisance ruling to get paint manufacturers to increase their payments to the state’s lead paint abatement program to include homes built before 1951, when the companies said they no longer were advertising lead in their paint, the paper says.
“The manufacturers' pushback is in the beginning stages, but it is expected to become as prominent as the trade group's nationwide campaign against the Obama administration's strict ozone standards for smog,” which eventually forced officials to finalize a requirement on the softer end of its proposed range of standards, the paper says.
The coalition, a project of NAM's Center for Legal Action, will fight the “coordinated network of special interests [that] has been waging a campaign to disparage U.S. manufacturers with a focus on America’s largest energy manufacturers. Their legally dubious tactic is the use of tort litigation and taxpayer-funded, politically-motivated investigations by public officials, all supported by well-known activists, plaintiffs’ attorneys, sympathetic academics and friendly journalism outlets,” the coalition says on its website.
“Left unchecked, this coordinated campaign jeopardizes the ability of all manufacturers to continue growing and providing jobs to millions of Americans. Misguided and politically-motivated legal attacks serve only to undermine the nation’s legal system, our manufacturing base, and our economy, leading us down a slippery slope in which no successful sector of our economy is safe from attack.”
For now, a big part of the coalition's campaign is likely to target the growing number of suits filed by states, environmentalists and other plaintiffs who are pursuing a series of novel legal theories to force large emitters and the federal government to take action to address climate change.
Such suits include constitutional cases brought by youth plaintiffs seeking to force the federal government to address climate change, securities cases brought by states alleging historic emitters like ExxonMobil did not adequately inform their shareholders of the financial risks the companies face from climate change and citizen enforcement actions against large facilities alleging Clean Water Act permit violations for not adequately accounting for climate change.
Roger Martella, a former EPA general counsel who now represents General Electric, said last year that such litigation is entering a new phase during which plaintiffs will move to hold companies and other entities accountable for their historic emissions and warned that industry should not “underestimate” the creativity and strategic ability of the groups they often face in court.
He said that while environmentalists had, until then, sought to use the Clean Air Act to curb emissions, he warned that “phase two” of the litigation will involve a shift away from regulatory cases toward a discussion of accountability for historic GHG emissions and damages caused by climate change. And while their cases may face legal hurdles, he warned that the plaintiffs are “strategic,” take “the long view,” and are “not shy” about trying strategies multiple times until they succeed.
But NAM's Linda Kelly, the group’s senior vice president and general counsel, told the Examiner that such climate suits are barred by the Supreme Court's 2011 ruling in American Electric Power v. Connecticut, which held that the suits are preempted by EPA regulation under the Clean Air Act.
And she added that even though such suits are barred, it is still costly and resource-intensive for industry to defend against.
“It’s really diverting resources for manufacturers; even when they win these cases, it is very costly to defend them,” Kelly said. “And manufacturers would rather spend that money investing in their companies and creating jobs and innovating to try to address the problems the lawsuits purport to address.”
https://insideepa.com/daily-feed/ewire-nam-launches-coalition-fight-plaintiffs-environmental-tort-suits
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